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Monday, December 5, 2016

Breaking out of my Comfort Zone

I know by the looks of this first picture my loyal followers are thinking everything looks normal, what is this gal talking about. She's pulled a bunch of happy bright fabrics that are well within her comfort zone.

Now let's get to the uncomfortable part of this fabric pull. It's for the Bonnie Hunter En Provence Mystery quilt. That's right my loyal quilting buddies I've decided to jump on the board the mystery train! It's a first for me. Typically I don't do mysteries for fear of not liking the pattern. To be honest I've never seen a Bonnie quilt I disliked, so why not make one?! It works into my very busy schedule right now. I mean she does all the quilty math and its FREE! But I must admit I can't jump completely on board this train. The paint chips below are Bonnie's color pallet for this quilt. You all know the problem, right? PURPLE! I don't do purple very often, so I'm changing it to a more Podunk friendly pallet.

The purples will be replaced with these lovely blues.

And that magenta Bonnie chose as the focus fabric, well it's not sitting right with me either. So with the wave of my quilty wand it was changed it to red. By the way I had to order the red. After digging through my stash I found one little piece of it and decided it was the perfect shade of red, but it's from an older line of fabric. After a long search on the internet I found the Tasha Noel print at MixFabrics. It was reasonably priced and arrived quickly.

The green and the yellow fabrics below are just a pull. I'm sure some of them will not make it into the quilt.

I've already started weeding out the low volume fabrics. Below is what I plan to use, but plans can change quickly in Podunk.

These little cuties were the first to make the cut. I felt the print was too large or too bold on each of these.

So the mystery has begun with this cute little 3.5 block. It's clue #2....yes I've already fallen behind. But I've a couple of days of free time to catch up.

So how many of you are doing the mystery? Are you at least saving the free patterns? Bonnie makes it very easy to save them, she has them available in PDF format. If all this is news to you and your curiosity is up, why not head over to Bonnie's blog right now to find out what all the hub-bub is about. There's hundreds...maybe thousands of quilters making this quilt. Today is the linky party for clue #2. Just click right here to be inspired by so many quilters making the En Provence Mystery Quilt. If you want the clues to this quilt you need to go to the top of her page in the link I provided. You'll see a tab at the top that says En Provence, click it! Hope to see some of you there!

I love your fabric choices! Purple is not my favorite color, either, but there was something about mixing it with the greens and yellows that drew me in this time. We shall see. It's my first time making a mystery quilt, too! Welcome aboard!!

Welcome aboard! This is my second mystery - I did Allietare last year and loved playing along, so I jumped right in this year. I changed some of my colors, too, but the purples were what attracted me - I love purple!

YAY, this is my first mystery quilt too! I, too, was hesitant at putting in all this work for a pattern I may not like, but as you said, there hasn't been a Bonnie Hunter quilt I didn't like. And I'm really looking forward to using all of her super-clever techniques, so I'm sure I'll learn so much! BTW, I think your colors are so cute and fun, which are the opposite of mine (mostly darkish repros), so I really can't wait to see how different our quilts end up! Have fun!

Good for you on deciding to give it a try! I read through it, thought about it, but decided to wait. I have too many projects I need to complete before I tackle another one. I was very, very tempted though! Your colors are so cheery and fun! Looking forward to seeing the quilt emerge! Wendy at piecefulthoughts@gmail.com

I love the way you have customized the fabrics to your own taste.....I think what you have will make a beautiful quilt. I've seen lots of people start the mystery quilt...I will have to check it out. I've never made a Bonnie quilt. Thanks for sharing your pretty fabrics on MCM!

I'm saving the patterns but won't start until after the mystery is revealed. I like most of Bonnie's quilts but, for me anyway, there are some I definitely do not like. I think it is great you are going with your own colors, makes your quilt your own. Happy sewing! Gretchen villacrestfarm@gmail.com

I love Bonnie's mystery quilts. They are lots of work but lots of reward too! I am caught up right now. The 100 triangle in a square blocks went a lot faster than all those 4 patches! I love your colors. Glad you have joined the group. K-

That is some fabric pull - I'll take those you don't want! As for joining the mystery, not for me as I find her patterns to be a bit busy for my eye. But I love to see what others make! Thanks for sharing on Midweek Makers

Your fabric swap-ups look great. It's always nice to have a direction to begin with but if they aren't your colours then you are wise to make it up in colours that are more you. That way you'll both like it and use it!

Thank you so much for sharing your color pull! I am saving her free patterns and planning to start after Christmas. You and I speak the same color language, so I may follow your lead. I'm saving your web page to my Bonnie Hunter 2016 file. If I end up doing this, I'll link back to you! Thank you so much for giving such a beautiful colorway alternative!

Doing it and going to make it bigger. I think it is beautiful with the purple and pink as I love those colors. Really like the quilt as i am almost done with the piecing, but I am tired and think I need to set it aside for a a week or so.